Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1887-03-29
ANNAPOLIS Md, TUESDAY EVENING, MARCH 20, 1887.
lincoln and stanton.


Brandegee in the New York Tribune:
One evening at crowded party given
BY Senator Dixon | was forced by the
press into corner and on looking
around found my neighbor was Secre-'
tary Stanton. By-and-by Dixon came
along and spying us said: Stanton,
tell him the scene between old Abe and
you the night of the battle of Gettys-
burg" Stanton then related the fol-
lowing:
Mr.. Lincoln had been excessively
solicitous about the result of that bat
tie. 1t was known that Lee had cross
ed into Pennsylvania, threatened Wash
ington, and that battle had been joined
near Gettysburg, upon which in all
probability the fate of Washington and
the issue of the War depended. The
telegraphic wires ran into the War De-
partment and dispatches had been re-
eeived of the first days fight, which
showed how desperate was the attack,
the stubbornness of the defense. and
that the result was indecisive. All that
day and the next Mr.. Lincoln was in
an agony of anxiety, running over, rs
was his wont, to the War Office to
ascertain for himself the latest news in
steed of waiting for the reports to be
sent him by his subordinates. Then
came a long interval when nothing was
heard from Meade, and the President
was wrought up to an intense pitch of
excitement. Night came on, and STAN
ton, seeing the President worn out with
care and anxiety, persuaded him to re-
turn to the White House, promising if
anything came over the wires during
the night to give him immediate in
formation. At last, toward midnight,
came the electric flash of that great
victory which saved the Union.
Stanton seized the dispatch and ran
as fast rs he could to the Executive
Mansion, up the stairs, and knocked at
the room where the President was
catching a fitful slumber. "Who is
there?" he heard in the voice of Mr.
Lincoln. "Stanton." The door was
opened and Mr.. Lincoln appeared with
light in his hand pcering through the
crack of the door, lin the shortest
nightdress and longest legs" as STAN
ton said, he ever saw on human be-
ing. Before Stanton, who was out of
breath, could say word the President,
who had caught with unerring instinct
the expression of his face, gave shout
of exultation, grabbed him with both
arms around the waist, and danced
him around the chamber until they
were both exhausted. They then sat
down upon trunk, and the President.
who was. still in his nightdress, read
over and over again the telegram, and
then discussed with him the probabili-
ties of the future and the results of the
victory until the day dawned.
Such scene at midnight between
two of the greatest Americans whom
this generation had produced, to whom
all wise Providence had committed in
largest measure the fate of Republican
liberty in this Western world, may not
afford subject for the loftiest eoncep-
tions of the poet or the painter, but
more than any other incident within
my knowledge it shows the human ma
ture of these two great men, and brings
them home to the hearts and the
hearthstones of the plain people of
whom Mr.. Lincoln was, on whom he
depended, and whom he loved 1t
shows him brooding all through those
three awful days, with an anxiety akin
to agony which no one could share
worn and weary with the long and
doubtful conflict between hope and
fear-treading the wine press for his
people alone. And at last when the
lightning flash had lifted the dark
cloud, dancing like schoolboy in the
ecstasy of delight and exhibiting a
touch of that human rature which
makes all the world akin.
As look back over the intervening
years to the great men and great events
of those historic days his figure rises
before my memory the grandest and
most majestic of them all. There were
giants in those days, but he lowered
above them like Popocatepetl or Chin
borazo. He was great in intellect, in
wisdom, in tact, in council, in speech,
in heart, in person-in everything.
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